Market update for weeks of 28 Apr & 5 May 2008

StarHub starts femto trial

The Singapore operator is about to start a 6-month consumer trial with 200 customers who take both post-paid mobile and residential broadband services from StarHub.

Telecom Italia Mobile interested in femtocells

Telecom Italia is very interested in deploying femtocells and is in trials with femtocell suppliers, but it wants the cost of femtocell units to come down. Luigi Licciardi (executive VP of TIM) says, “We think femtocell is…one of the most attractive solutions for our customers is to have a flat rate, a cheap rate, to use the mobile handset at home and femtocells can solve some problems like inside coverage.”

Nokia Siemens Networks partners with Pirelli

Pirelli Broadband Solutions is building femtocell technology into its home gateway products. A wide range of femto-enabled CPE models will integrate with NSN’s Femto Gateway. The announcement does not specify whether Pirelli is going it alone, or partnering with a specialist supplier for femtocell access point technology that integrates with the NSN gateway like its rivals Netgear and Thomson. NSN recently denied a rumour that it is looking to work directly with home CPE suppliers (supplying the femtocell CPE technology itself), but the story refused to go away last week.

In-Stat’s “Itty Bitty Basestation” forecast

In-Stat predicts that by 2012 shipments of femtocells, picocells and microcells will exceed 31 million units.

ABI says femtocells will boom in 2010

Analyst Stuart Carlaw says that femtocells will get off to slow start this year with around 100,000 units shipped, but will be booming by 2010, when shipments will likely total tens of millions.

picoChip is braced for the femtocell boom

picoChip says its biggest order to date is for 10,000 femto chips, but they expect femto shipments to overtake their WiMAX business next year. Here’s a video of picoChip’s HSDPA femtocell reference design demo.

26 million US households will cut the cord by 2012

Approximately 12 million households currently opt for a wireless-only phone connection, with that number expected to increase to about 26 million in 2012 (equal to about 22% of market share.) “The maturing of the younger, more tech-savvy demographic combined with emerging technologies (such as femtocell) set to improve wireless coverage and reduce costs, will further promote the position of wireless services,” says Ian Olgeirson, Senior Industry Analyst for SNL Kagan.

3G coverage in the UK

Vodafone estimates its 3G network covers more than 92% of the UK. O2 meanwhile has recently met the terms of its 3G licence in the UK by reaching 80% national coverage. “O2’s strategy has been to roll out our 3G network in areas where there is the most demand, providing high quality, in-building coverage in those areas,” said an O2 spokesman.

In other news…

• New York Times confuses femtocells with WiFi
• FT Digital Business Review discusses femtocells
• Ubiquisys, Alcatel-Lucent and ip.access top ABI’s femtocell vendor matrix
• Ubiquisys makes it into the Fierce 15
• Lime Microsystems promises cheap programmable silicon for universal femtocells
• PA Consulting believes femtocells can reach mass market price points
• Yankee Group says only consumers who have poor indoor service will be tempted to purchase a femtocell initially
• BT blames Fusion’s failure on lack of competing WiFi / dual mode offerings
• 63% of Americans would switch to an FMC service if they knew such a thing existed
• ICSA Labs, an independent division of Verizon, plans to test femtocell security
• Ceva targets its “silicon intellectual property” at femtocells
• O2 UK extends fixed broadband offering – Ovum suggests link to femtocell trials
• Gary Kim questions femtocell business models
• Some good femtocell FAQ over at Think Femtocell…
• …and discussion about femtocell handover
• What are people willing to pay for a femtocell?

And finally…

Three cheers!!! Exradia is dead! These cynical snake oil merchants were trying to sell mobile phone batteries supposedly designed to protect you from THE RAYS. It had been suggested that they might get away with this scam, but fortunately they didn’t.